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Western Coalition/Background
2005 In 2005, the world reached peak oil extraction. As a result, oil prices skyrocket, this puts pressure on national leaders to make energy a priority in national policy. 2007 Ukraine enters the European Union, and they begin pulling valuable former Soviet republics away from Russia and integrating them into the EU and NATO. 2009 Global influenza breaks out. The first of many H5N1 avian influenza outbreaks kills thousands in South East Asia, causing tightened borders. The disease would continue to spread for the next 10 years. Georgia and Georgian republics, Azerbaijan, and Armenia join the European Union, angering the Russian Federation. NATO states reiterate the commitment to their independence, satisfying US and EU oil companies in the region. The Sunni & Sh’ite conflict in the Middle East increases as Iran and Saudi Arabia wage a proxy war using ethnic and religious militants who launch insurrections in each country, oppressing the civilians and causing appalling amounts of infrastructure damage. Only the U.S. military sitting between them in Iraq prevents war. World oil prices, already high, arise in fear that any broadening conflict could decimate oil production. 2010 An attempted coup by CIA backed military officials in Venzuela fails and they expose US involvement. The US responds with embargoes and military action designed to cripple the economy and overthrow the regime. But, because of their support from other South American countries, the current Venezuelan regime remains intact. Later that year they form the League of South American Free States. Based on Brazilian agriculture and affordable Venezuelan oil, the league is stronger than expected. The first of several pro-democracy, pro-liberalization movements in China fail. Over the coming years all the major powers resemble military police tactics, resulting in civil unrest and domestic terrorism in major states. The European Union builds defenses and military bases in the joint states of Turkey, Azerbaijan, and Georgia. While officials downplay the buildup, they focus towards protecting against the Russian Federation and ensuring access to Caspian Basin oil reserves in these countries. 2012 By 2012, the major superpowers are picking sides in the Sunni-Sh’ite conflict. China and Iran make a deal to exchange arms and oil, giving Shi’a forces a limitless supply of arms, including Chinese nuclear technology. Then, the Western powers arm the Saudis and their Sunni proxies, against the Iranians and the Shi’a militias they support. Because of the introduction of high-tech military hardware, the conflict extends to encompass outbreaks of traditional air and land combat, and high-tech weaponry against civilians. A Massive global recession is taking place. Political changes in the Middle East, falling oil yields, continuous illness epidemics, and environmental deterioration cause inflation and a recession across the world. In countries with less prosperous economies and larger populations, such as China and Russia, this results in political strife and anti-government dissent. Martial Law becomes all-but-permanent. In many parts of the developing world like Africa, nations crumble and a period of anarchy begins. Mass starvation's on an unseen scale occur. In other nations, many in South America, robust micro economies allow the population to flourish. 2013 One year later, the Iran-Saudi war stretches across the region, flaring up into direct conflict. Smaller Middle Eastern nations like Syria, Lebanon and Jordan collapse; anarchy follows. Iranian and Saudi forces battle over and on the Persian Gulf, and across the lawless deserts of Eastern Iraq. US forces in the country retreat to their fortifications and continue to protect the oil supply. Severe climate change ends seasonal weather consistency in parts of the world leading to an intense strain on ecosystems and ruin of dependent human populations as crops fail and food stocks dissipate. Mass starvation, never seen in modern human history breaks out in Africa; populations die out, societies collapse, and anarchy ensues. Journalists reveal Israel has been arming and aiding both factions of the Sunni-Shi’a conflict. International outrage in Iran and Saudi Arabia is intense, and both countries retaliate with traditional and guerrilla attacks on Israel. Israel retaliates against its neighbors, an act of which consumes the entire region in a bloody war. Following the murder of Pakistan’s leader by Islamic militants, the nation degenerates into chaos and tribalism. Only the capitol and strategic and urban areas stay under ‘Government’ rule, with US/NATO and Indian cooperation. NATO reinforces bases in Afghanistan, and US troops prop up the remaining forces of the government in Pakistan. US power companies sign a long-term deal with Turkmenistan to use oil reserves in the Caspian Sea, and to ship it out via a pipeline through occupied Afghanistan and Pakistan. The following year, a three-way nuclear war between Israel, Saudi Arabia, and Iran decimates all three countries. They make major cities and large portions of inhabited land radioactive wastelands. Only small pockets of civilization exist, with vast expanses of tribal wasteland. Intermittent oil extraction continues from well-fortified oil fields, like those held by foreign powers in Iran, Iraq, and the Saudi desert. Middle Eastern oil production falls. The industrial economies of the world, already floundering in a recession, still try a transformation to post-petroleum sustainability, dive into a depression, the likes of which haven’t been seen since the 1930s. 2014 Global warming causes the oceans to rise. Coastal populations in Europe, North America, and China begin a semi-orderly migration inland. In less developed countries, flooding kills millions who cannot go anywhere else. They felt the worst effects in Bangladesh where tens of millions drown by flooding and monsoons. Chinese forces try to restore order but run up against forces from India seeking to do the same. Both nations eventually abandon the area and seal the borders, leaving them to their fate. A process of slow assimilation, starting with NAFTA in 1992, and all North American nations adopting single North American currency in 2009, contributes to the North American Free Union, an EU style trade bloc that includes Canada, the United States, and parts of Mexico. From this point the allegiances and alliances of states and provinces on the continent drift from the earlier national concerns that unified them, towards more shared regional interests. 2015 Economic depression and wartime resentment lead to unrest of an intensity unknown in Europe and North America. Martial law, established to restore order, leads to dissolution of democratic processes, and a disregard for civil rights. The North American military hijacks foreign oil tankers leaving South American ports, setting off open opposition between the two. Retaliation by South American intelligence agencies within North American states serve as a pretext to justify invasion, and NAFU troops try to capture key assets in Venezuela and Columbia, and fumbling attempts to neutralize senior members of the ruling regimes. The League’s military and intelligence forces, strengthened by modern arms of Chinese originals thwart the attacks and inflict serious losses on the North American attackers. North American command retaliates with a few strategic strikes on key SA assets. A militarized zone between the two blocks, in Central America, forms and fortifies. China and India battle several times, as do US and Chinese troops at the border between China, Pakistan and Afghanistan. Tensions Between China and India, drive the latter to ally with the US, designed to show a united front against increasing Chinese aggression. Petrochemical funds from Caspian Basin oil beds follow in Central Asian republics, Kazakhstan, Turkmenistan, Tajikistan, and Uzbekistan, and these nations become known as ‘The New Middle East’ as they develop into prosperous and more powerful countries in the world community. Some of these states, such as Kazakhstan, use this wealth to industrialize. Several dictators and quasi-legitimate democratic regimes get used to playing the EU, the US, the Russian Federation, and the People’s Republic of China, off each other for the benefit of their nations and themselves. Russia and China, and a few smaller states, form the Red Star Alliance, a framework for joint military operations under a single command structure, and energy and technology sharing arrangements. 2016 Most superpowers have abandoned all veneer of liberal democracy and have become military police states. Only a few isolated countries like New Zealand, Australia, and Iceland are still independent and livable. An idea to heal major economies by loosening trade restrictions, forgiving debt, and rewarding economic incentives, fails. The global depression only worsens. US strategic missile defense goes online, making North America invincible to long and medium range strategic weapons. This at once cools any hints of hostility by the Red Star Alliance in Central Asia, as the nuclear arsenal serves as a deterrent. A pandemic of disease sweeps the globe, causing fatalities in the hundreds of millions. In the developed countries, plagues such as Tuberculosis, Influenza, Cholera, and Typhoid, reappear in hyper virulent strains. Advances in medicine and large-scale disease control lessen the impact, but at the cost of human lives. The NATO member countries plus Afghanistan, Pakistan, and India form the Western Coalition as a bulwark against increasing Red Star power in Central Asia, but also as a way of synergizing mutual energy resources and the forces required to secure them. Integrated military units under a common command structure accountable to the (corporate controlled) civilian governments of the Coalition nations, and flexible, modular, standardized military forces formate. With the Western Coalition’s formation, old NATO Command aggregates and rearranges units from the militaries of various member states into a single cohesive force capable of quick deployment. Because of world issues that need military attention, they carry aggregation out from the top down. Several elite units, the cream of the crop, from the WC member nations best marine, airborne, spec op, heavy infantry, armored cavalry, and close air support services form into a new, next generation “Strike Division”, known as the Western Coalition 125th Combined Arms Strike Force. The new force has the latest in high-tech communications and assault hardware at their disposal, and can mobilize on short notice to anywhere in the world where they can deliver a rapid offensive strike where needed. The new division sees its first operation when it’s sent to reinforce struggling Western Coalition forces beleaguered in their fortifications in Iraq. Facing a militant army composed of surviving elements from the Iranian army, the 125th engages and destroys two armored divisions and engages thousands of enemy infantry. Several follow up strikes cripple supply lines and cause a rout of the invasion. 2016-2017 The 125th remains in the Middle East, protecting oil fields against combatants and terrorists. They see several low profile actions against paramilitaries and insurgents, with better than hoped results. 2017 Surrounded by desperate, hostile people, and extracting diminishing amounts of oil at increasing cost from practically depleted deposits, foreign powers withdraw their remaining forces and abandon the Middle East. The little population and last vestiges of civilizations that stay degenerate into a tribal wasteland. Despite high-tech solutions and centralized management, the major powers cannot sustain agricultural yields to support subsistence levels for their populations. Starvation becomes normal in developed countries. Economists agree the global depression has become permanent. Earlier commercial models that relied upon supply and demand, and industrial output and the flexibility of free markets cannot account for energy depletion, environmental collapse, overpopulation, and international degradation. Radical voices claim current resources are not enough to support a recovery for the entire population, and war is unavoidable. Under pressure from Russia and China, Turkmenistan, Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, Tajikistan, renounce their neutrality and join the Red Star Alliance. Red Star Command extracts oil and ships it out of the new member countries. The Winter of 2017 bring weather that kills millions and leaves many regions uninhabitable. Tropical countries experience deep freezes, and storms of previously unseen ferocity pound coastlines. 2018 Elements of the 125th see heavy action covering the closing of multiple Western Coalition extraction operations and oversee the retreat of Coalition troops from depleted oil fields in the former Saudi Arabia and Gulf States. Coalition Command gives members of the 125th awards of valor for saving their countrymen. This action lead to the 125th gaining fame and recognition at home for their actions. 2019 South American Revolutionary forces invade the neutral state of Panama, seeking to seize control of the Panama Canal, which allowed them to restrict Coalition access to this valuable strategic passageway. Surprised, the Coalition command inserts several companies of the 125th into action, some inserted through amphibious landing, high altitude low opening drop, and through overland actions via Nicaragua. Despite being outnumbered, the 125th destroys the SAFU forces, inflicting heavy causalities and pushing them out of the country. While debriefing the Western Coalition’s civilian ministers, WC Joint Command Chair, General Norman Stanley Velmouth comments that “the 12th are like a goddamn pack of hungry, scrappy, stray dogs that always seem to wander into the middle of the heaviest action”. The rank and file of the division takes pride in the characterization and adorn their hardware with various make-shift representations of “scruffy” looking dogs as a badge of honor and braggadocio. Different companies and platoons within the division often adopt different styles of “Stray Dog” emblems. This was where the “Stray Dogs” nickname began. 2020 Russian missile defense comes online four years after the US; Russia brings Red Star allies under its missile defense shield. With ICBM and medium-range missiles useless, strategic nuclear war between the superpowers becomes obsolete. Nuclear arsenals, small through limitation treaties, become re-tooled for tactical use. Superpowers start conventional military buildup in Central Asia. 2021 The planet hails great news as the treaty between Red Star and Western Coalition ends a long ambiguous conflict along Chinese, Pakistani, and Afghan borders in South Asia. Leaders from both powers make pledges to back away from conflict and concentrate on problems at home, yet escalate the arms race. The pro-Red Star government of Turkmenistan topples in a bloodless coup, and the new regime shocks Red Star by defecting to the Coalition. The government then awards oil extraction contracts to Western Coalition energy companies and allows security forces into the country to protect the extraction operations. Oil that previously went North to Russia and West to China now goes South to Coalition ports in Pakistan, bound for the heartland of established nations. The 125th, now referred to just as “The Stray Dogs”, return to duty, this time in Central Asia where they’re placed under the WC Asian Central Command and stationed in Afghanistan. Late in the year hostilities flare between Red Star forces in south-western China and Coalition forces across the border in occupied Pakistan when Red Star Alliance forces try to annex several hundred square kilometers of disputed Pakistani real estate to gain control of resources in the zone. The WC Central Mountain Division falls back, surrendering the territory, and the Chinese advance in to occupy it. But, the Stray Dogs hit the weak northern flank of the Red Star advance, ravaging their core armored and air support components, cutting off the main body of the occupying force, isolating them from the Chinese border and their support and supply lines. Coalition Command then calls for a retreat recognizing the Coalition right to the territory and renouncing any claim to it, holding the isolated Chinese forces hostage. Weeks later the treaty goes through and the Red Star forces return home, the territory now established as Western Coalition. This marks the effectiveness of the Stray Dogs on the battlefield. 2023 A ‘super-hurricane’ so powerful that a new category’s given to it, appears in the Pacific and devastates the West coast of North America from Alaska to Portland, while Turkmenistan oil progressing to the Western Coalition countries benefits their desperate populations. Coalition command deploy the 125th to Alaska, appointing them to stand guard over oil platforms in the Bearing Sea, which the Red Star have been conducting naval exercises close to. Bad fortune strikes when the “super-hurricane” strikes southern Alaska. The damage floods and ruins the city of Anchorage, causing civilian death. RSA forces use the storm as cover and try to seize the oil platforms in the devastation’s midst. The Stray Dogs fight off the attacking Red Star forces while assuming a civil defense role, rescuing the lives of civilians and keeping order. With media exposure of their deeds, the Stray Dogs gain a mythic quality in the public mind, and join the ranks of distinguished military units. The division suffers severe causalities and recuperates at the divisional headquarters near Calgary, Alberta for six months. 2024 The overthrown regime of Turkmenistan, in exile in Moscow, offers proof of Coalition assisting of the coup that overthrew them, and appeals to the international community to restore them. Despite Chinese and Russian lobbying, the community does not support them. Thus, Red Star troops aided by the deposed dictator of Turkmenistan are air dropped into major cities and seize control of key strategic assets in the country including oil fields, government infrastructure, communication networks, and the security apparatus. The oil wars begin. Category:Frontlines: Fuel of War